Star Wars: Jedi Knight II - Jedi Outcast

The Good
There are many good elements faithful to the Dark Forces series, including a decent variety of weapons, large and numerous levels, objectives to follow, a plethora of Empire enemies to gun down, well-hidden secrets, Force powers, some lightsaber fights, and of course Kyle Katarn himself. The innovative storyline draws you like a Force Pull to play the next level after the next, just so you can get more of that intriguing experience. After the first few levels of running and gunning, it feels rewarding to be a Jedi again. And as a Jedi, it feels so satisfying to slice the Reborn Sith in those dramatic slow motion moments. I’m not sure Force Grip and Force Lightning are in line with the Jedi way, but there you have it.

Adding to the impressive arsenal, you get a few nifty little gadgets such as miniature droids. And there are times when you get to actually be a droid to access places Kyle cannot. And while you have opportunities to fight AT-STs, there is a level where you can actually commandeer a couple of them. Every level has its own gimmicks, one of them being stealth if you could even call it that since you’ll end up killing enemies to progress anyway. Help from NPCs is welcome and does even the odds.

The Bad
While many of the controls are standard, the ability to lean left and right with the Use key is useless, because you can’t shoot while in this mode. It’s better to use the third-person perspective for a better view. The running and jumping feels very floaty and not in a good way. Often you’ll find yourself stumbling before you can make a successful Force Jump, leading to more unfair deaths than Anakin did to his victims. Falls are going to be your number one enemy throughout the game. Those problems were not abundant in the original Dark Forces, in which you had better movement control. The worst element in the game is the level that requires you to swim in zero-gravity which is such a broken mechanic that keeps getting Kyle killed.

And speaking of broken, the shooting in this game often works against you because when enemies move, you’ll miss a lot, a big problem if you’re accustomed to hitscan guns. And there are times when you fire while you’re up close to the enemy, but the shots don’t seem to connect, as if they are phasing through. If all else fails, just stick to using your lightsaber. And you’d better learn how to use the thermal detonators properly, because you’ll blow yourself up if you tap the right-mouse button too lightly. Lastly the Light Amplification Goggles are pretty useless due to the obscurity of your field of vision and running out of battery power relatively quickly. The Night Vision Goggles from Dark Forces were heaps better.

The levels themselves are not perfect. The action they pack is fine, but the real issue is some of the puzzle elements, which often put first time players in multiple “Where the heck do I go?” situations, because you need to perform very specific actions to progress with little in the way of clues on exactly what to do. These elements may work in a Lucasarts adventure game like Maniac Mansion, but this attempt to make the game more interesting, it doesn’t work in the same way a tomb Raider does. And with the number of hazards and ambushing enemies that keep hurting you, you’re going to slam the Force Heal power quite a bit, which hurts the fun factor. And I almost forgot the most obvious problem, you can’t skip cutscenes or even the end credits, adding to wasted time.

The Bottom Line
While the gameplay runs okay for most of the game, the physics have a lot to be desired. The combat mechanics and gadgets from Dark Forces weren’t very well emulated as they could have been. Even being faithful to the Star Wars lore and packed with the desired amount of action, it does feel like Lucasarts was trying too hard to make this game good. It shows through the numerous and differing levels. And in regards to baffling puzzles, if I wanted that in a game, I would have picked a point-and-click Star Wars adventure game, which sadly does not exist. One way or another, you’ll adapt to the game and learn to love it, especially if you like shooters and Star Wars. Battling the Empire and Sith never gets dull, so enjoy from start to finish.